


one more night (till the morning)

by sunbean72



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Endgame
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2019-10-23 16:09:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17686706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunbean72/pseuds/sunbean72
Summary: Thanos is vanquished and those who were turned to dust in the snap are back.  Tony has everything he ever hoped and worked for.So why is he so unhappy?





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is likely to hurt, children

Tony felt the power shudder through him, a feeling he could not describe but which was most closely compared to a surge of strength from the arc reactor amplified infinitely. That kind of power was never meant to be wielded by a mere mortal man, however well-intention he may be, and, he thought, maybe not even a mortal woman with the competent no-nonsense capabilities of Pepper Potts.

Fleetingly, through the pain of his entire body on a cellular level being destroyed by the equivalent of embracing the power of an infinite number of atomic bombs, he thought it might kill him. It would be worth it, as long as he survived long enough to save everyone else. A final and ultimate _don't waste it_ he'd been chasing his entire life since Afghanistan, unequivocal. But he didn't die. In the same instant he was destroyed, the power of the gauntlet, the united infinity stones, healed him. It didn't stop him from feeling the pain of it, but it was only a flash of pain almost too intense to feel. In that brief moment of facing his own demise, he thought of Pepper (it was always her), he thought of Peter Parker, and he thought that he was grateful that Nebula had been the one to kill Thanos, that was only right, he thought he was grateful to have seen Wakanda before he died even if it was where he died. Then he was no longer capable of thought, was only barely capable of _existing._

Then perhaps, after all, it might have meant his end-- not in the death of his body but rather his obliviation, an inability to find his way back through the surge of power as infinite and complex as the immensity of space. He felt a part of the whole of it and lost himself. There were no more thoughts of Pepper or Thanos or Peter; there was no Tony to think about them at all. There was no up or down or light or darkness and he slipped into that infinite abyss without so much as a thought.

He felt, though, at the last moment, a firm grasp around his wrist, a sudden and inexorable _pull._ He'd been suspended in midair, but someone had him now, pulling him down. He collapsed as the energy withdrew, his eyes closed as he fought against... he fought-- 

_"Tony!"_ A voice screamed. Him, he was Tony, the voice was screaming at him. The recognition brought him back to himself, he thought. He opened his eyes. But then he was in a cave, Yinsen standing over him, watching him after he was waterboarded, then it was Peter, leaning over him before pulling him to his feet on Titan after Thanos disappeared with the time stone, then it was Steve-- it really was Steve, his blue eyes panicked.

"Is he dead?" 

"No, he's alive. Tony! Tony, are you all right? Tony!"

He was in New York again, the New York of the past, and Steve, Thor, and the Hulk looked down at him, but then in an instant as if he'd blinked they changed and it was them but now, them but in the present not the past, them but Hulk was Bruce. Time seemed to warp strangely but then righted itself and Rhodey was there and Carol Danvers and Rocket and Scott Lang and the Wakandans. Natasha and Clint would be around somewhere. "What just happened?" He couldn't help but ask, just like before, but his words were slurred and weak. He wasn't even sure he'd spoken out loud.

"We won," Steve said, wiping away tears that he couldn't seem to help but the words were that echo of the past, it was the Steve of the past that said them, he hadn't caught what this Steve had said or maybe they'd both said it. Steve was injured, most of them were in various degrees; Nebula would need attention, Thanos had not gone down without a brutal fight, and he'd seen Okoye fall though she'd been moving. Steve's hand hovered over Tony, looking for a way to open the armor.

"Can we get you out of this, Tony? Are you hurt?" Bruce kneeled down quickly and tapped on the arc reactor, causing the nanotech to retract. Tony felt the ghost of a shield being wrenched from his chest after being embedded there by a powerful blow, again the weird eddy of time, the tug and pull of it as if a tide. He didn't answer Bruce; he wasn't sure. He felt Bruce's hands patting him down checking for injuries but he felt no pain from recent traumas; the broken ribs seemed mended, the various gashes erased without a trace. He was weak as a newborn, however. He didn't have an ounce of strength.

Bruce didn't have time for a very thorough exam; in the next instant, Tony felt the strong, firm grasp of Steve Rogers. "Tony I thought we lost you," Steve said, pulling Tony into an embrace and injured or not it had been his grasp that brought Tony back, had anchored him. Tony couldn't answer or resist or return the embrace; he couldn't move his limbs. Steve let him lay back down, looking at him anxiously. "There was so much energy, I thought--."

"S'okay Cap. Right, Bruce? Right? Did it work?" He asked faintly, trying to lift his head, his hand.

Bruce wouldn't look him in the eye for a bare moment, glancing instead at Carol and looking almost furtive, almost guilty. But then Bruce gave him a small, reassuring smile and nod and Tony couldn't be sure he was thinking straight. "Yeah, Tony. You did it. You did it." Even as he spoke, people once dusted started appearing. Just as before when Thanos had initiated the snap, it took time, it wasn't instantaneous. It was slow, like along peal of thunder, reverberating.

In the bright Wakandan sunlight, people started reforming out of thin air. The confused, elated, joyous cries of the Wakandans who had been fighting beside them filled the air, but Tony could only hear them dimly as he fought against the darkness crowding his thoughts and vision. "Tony!" Thor was beside him, pulling him to his feet as if he were a child, grasping his shoulders to take his weight and embracing the battered but intact genius. "Tony, you did it."

He too looked Tony over anxiously, sensing Tony's weakness. Tony's reassurance that he was perfectly fine died on his lips as Thor's expression turned to one of dread and worry. Following his line of sight Tony looked down quickly and noticed for the first time that his left arm from the elbow down was blackened, injured; he attempted to move his fingers but couldn't tell if it was his general weakness or something specific to his hand but he couldn't move it, he could feel a terrible pressure-like pain that's been masked by numbing. 

"Nevermind," Thor said firmly, seeing the looking of sorrow and fear on Tony's face. How could he work without his hand? "It will be all right." Perhaps, Tony thought, Thor thought it was a small price to pay. He was probably right, but anyway Tony was too focused on other things at the moment, he couldn't worry about it, he was struggling to stay upright and he was searching among the survivors--

"Tony!" Rhodey was pushing his way through the crowd, his new War Machine armor damaged, but it had done the job. He looked good, Tony noted with a niggling of pride. He looked very good. Thor slid an arm around Tony, ducking down to brace him under his arms, half carrying him and supporting most of his weight. Had he not, Tony would have not been able to stand or walk just yet.

"Rhodey!" 

"Tony?" It was Pepper over the comms.

"I've got him, Pep, he's here. He's--" his eyes found Tony's, and Tony glanced down at his hand. Rhodey took it in, a brief look of shock on his face then a firm, sad nod. "He's going to be all right."

"I'm in the supersonic jet, I'll be there in less than an hour. Tony?"

"I'm... I'm here," Tony said breathlessly. "I love you."

"I love you too, Tony! I've got Morgan, we'll be with you soon."

Tony breathed. Pepper and Morgan would be here soon. He closed his eyes, tired, but opened them again to watch the dusted people begin to reappear.

Tony was patient. He didn't have any strength to be anything else, but his heart rate ticked up as moments went by. Each person that reappeared strengthened his hope. "Sam! Sam!!" Rhodey was calling, urgent, squeezing Tony's hand tightly before letting go and Tony smiled as he watched the two teammates embrace each other, then Steve embraced him. Wanda appeared in a burst of light and scarlet, Clint and Steve and Natasha grabbing her, assuring themselves that she was real and whole but she looked sad--

"Bucky!" Steve said hoarsely, stumbling all over himself as James Barnes reappeared, pale but intact, his black and golden arm eliciting a bit of fleeting interest from Tony and some emotion tugged powerfully at his heart but he couldn't name it, couldn't even tell if it hurt or pleased him, maybe both. He watched the two men as they embraced and embraced. 

He felt Thor take a breath and hold it and looked over just as Rocket was touching the face of Groot. Tony grinned now, joy bursting within him like a fountain. Rocket deserved this moment, he deserved it. He glanced up at Thor to see if he would go join his friends who had traveled with him at such peril to help him get Stormbreaker, but Thor looked down at Tony and shook his head. "I will stay with you until you are stronger. There will be time enough now to celebrate with our friends," he said, for once quiet, and Tony knew he was seeing his dead that the gauntlet didn't have the power to return-- his mother, his father, his brother, Heimdall, all his fallen people. 

Thor could be with his other friends, celebrating victory, but instead he stayed by Tony to lend him his strength and it was the kindness as much as the strength that Tony needed in that moment and time wheeled, wobbled and Tony was back in time again, when he and Nebula arrived back to earth and Thor had helped him then, weak from near starvation and his injuries from the battle in Titan. _I lost the kid,_ he'd told them, the only important thing.

"Thor," he tried to say, wanting to tell him about the weird time shifts but when Thor looked down at him in concern they were both distracted by T'Challa's return, and a young women Tony recognized from pictures as Shuri. Okoye was barely on her feet but she bowed to her king, embraced him and another woman lost in the snap, Nakia. 

He was starting to worry now. Everyone seemed to be back; the trickle of return stopped altogether. He supposed there was a chance that Wong had been wrong that Dr. Strange would be able to create a portal home, but if he was then he would need Rocket and Nebula to help him get a ship together. He'd go himself--

A sudden hissing sound like rain on a hot plate jerked his attention. "Thor!" He said urgently, and Thor helped him walk toward the sudden and bright light of a portal being opened via sling ring, and Tony misstepped as he was suddenly in Central Park on a jog with Pepper, his world upended completely by that first appearance by Stephen Strange and Bruce Banner. He felt Thor's embrace catch him and wrench him back to the present as Drax stepped through, then Peter Quill, then the little Mantis who had been so afraid when they started to disappear. Stephen hadn't warned them on Titan, though he'd seen what would happen, after all.

"Quill! Drax, Mantis!" Nebula shouted, running for them, Rocket and Groot in step with her. The Guardians of the Galaxy, minus one; Nebula had told Tony all about her green-skinned assassin sister. Gamora. She wouldn't be coming back. He watched them hug, cry, embrace, be embraced, their faces shining and their grief and gratitude and joy were overwhelming and Tony tore his eyes away, trying to see through the sparking light of the portal. There should be two more.

Then.

Finally.

_If you even cared, you'd actually be here._

_I did listen, kid... do you know, I was the only one who believed in you..._

_Mr. Stark. I don't feel so good._

_Tony. There was no other way._

_Save me! Save me, I don't want to go, I don't want to go! Please, please--_

Peter, on the edge of a building, looking at Tony with pleading eyes after Tony told him he was taking the suit. _Please, please! I'm sorry!_

_Sorry doesn't cut it._

_Please, I don't want to go!_

_I'm sorry._

He found the strength somehow to lift his arms and catch Peter as he fell into his arms, his curls warm as if he'd been in sunlight, and there was no worry about Peter's strength being affected, his grip, holding him tightly, it would bruise--

He was on Titan, Peter holding on for dear life, a moment where they both knew what was coming and neither could do anything about it and there was silence between them and dread and grief and overwhelming fear before they'd both fallen to the ground.

"Please! Mr. Stark, are you all right? Sir? What's wrong with him?"

He was on the ground again, looking into Peter's face as he disintegrated-- no. No. Peter was looking down at him, worried, afraid. The time shifts flickering so fast he couldn't remember how he'd gotten on the ground again. "Pete? Kid?"

"I'm here!" Peter said eagerly, grasping Tony's hand painfully tight, and Tony looked up, Peter and the blue sky, Peter and Dr. Strange, but Peter. Peter. He'd done it, he'd brought him back. 

"Kid. Peter, I'm so sorry kid."

But Peter couldn't hear him or didn't acknowledge it, or maybe it was something he'd said in the past. "Mr. Stark, your hand! You need a doctor!" Behind him, Dr. Strange and Bruce Banner exchanged a look. 

"Doc," Tony managed. More faces were appearing. Clint and Natasha and Steve and Bucky. Scott and Rocket and Nebula, looking ready to murder half the people around him who wouldn't move out of her way. Thor still had a hand on his shoulder; Rhodey, T'Challa, Sam, Wanda.

But Peter. 

He blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you for reading and I thrive off of comments! you know I adore you guys, right? Thanks for hanging out with me while I tell you a story.


	2. Chapter 2

"Tony?! Tony... please. Please, Tony." 

Tony tried to open his eyes, confused, unable to make sense of his surroundings. "Mom?" It sounded like his mother. A resounding silence followed. 

Right. 

Not... not his mom. She was gone, still gone. He remembered that now, it was foolish... it had sounded like her, though. For a moment, it had sounded like she was calling him. When he was small and had climbed somewhere dangerous, he thought. 

"Tony, wake up. It's me, Helen." He wanted to listen to Helen Cho; she was a good doctor, all that, bright mind, but his eyelids... too heavy.

"Tony." He opened his eyes at Pepper's familiar voice, no sense in worrying her--

Pepper's face swam into focus, then the three-year-old child with dark hair, blue eyes, and freckles she was holding. "Morgie. Hey there, buddy."

"Dad," the toddler said, reaching, pulling Pepper over by lunging away from her. 

"Easy, easy." Rhodey caught Morgan's weight then took him from Pepper before helping him to crawl into the hospital bed with his father. Tony put sat up, attempting to put his arms around his precious, sweet child. HIs left arm, aching, motionless, bandaged, caught his attention but Morgan was more important, Morgan was everything. The warm and living soul that he adored more than he'd ever thought possible. He'd always thought that he loved Pepper the most it was possible to love anyone, but along came Morgan and he loved that kid with a profound and frightening depth and it only added to what he felt for Pepper, it potentiated it, and his love for Pepper made him love Morgan more. 

Something close to peace settled over his chest as he felt Morgan's small arms attempt to embrace him as tightly as he could despite the papers he was clutching tightly in his fists. "Hey sweet guy."

"Dad, I made a scary book," Morgan said, sweetly oblivious to the life and death struggle his father had been fighting... his whole life. "A scary book! I drew a bad guy." He pressed the scribbled and crumpled papers into Tony's hands, beaming proudly, a deep dimple appearing in his left cheek. 

"These are... these are r-really great, buddy. Very scary! So spooky." Tony said, pressing the little child tightly to him. He felt something flicker in his chest and shook his head to clear his thoughts; the nanites were responding to his intense feelings of protection. Now that... now that they had won. He could... he could take them out. Or at least make them, make them less responsive.

"Tony, are you okay?" Dr. Cho was leaning toward him. He nodded.

"Sluggish. It's hard to..." he couldn't think of the word. He pulled Morgan away from his chest to look at his face but for a moment it was Peter Parker's terrified and apologetic face on Titan before it was Morgan again and he squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed them with the heels of his hands, hard, to the point of pain. "My hand? Parker! W-where's P-Peter?"

"Your arm... we don't know yet, Tony, it's too soon to say. The cradle hasn't worked on it, but we're not done trying. As for Peter-- he's here, he's safe. He's healthy. Right now he's with his aunt, they're both waiting to see you. A lot of people are waiting to see you. Bruce. Stephen Strange. All the Avengers and the Guardians. Nebula hasn't left the hallway, I think she threatened to kill three interns."

"Oh it's nice to hear she's getting less aggressive," Tony said, holding on to Morgan as if he were the only real thing. The thought panicked him and he set Morgan down in an instant and threw himself out of bed backing up fast in the small med bay and slamming against a tray with equipment. It flew everywhere with startling loudness and Tony turned quickly, stumbling, knocking into things, still so weak he could hardly stand so clutching at the counter, at the doorknob.

Pepper couldn't help but scream. "Tony!" Morgan was crying and Rhodey and Helen were reaching for him but their touch only caused him to jerk away, slamming against the wall and knocking over a mirror. With no strength, he fell to the ground as images of the last ten years as Iron Man slammed through his brain, like watching a slide show sped up to a terrifying speed.

_I know guys with none of that worth ten of you... I do hope you came to appeal to my humanity... She bought me a churro, that was nice... Rule number one, never take your eyes off your opponent... Oh, Tony. Look at that. It's your legacy... I'm not the director of anybody... I take that back Mr. Stark!... Is that so? Well then I quit..._

"Easy, easy, easy!! Someone get... Pepper, take Morgan out of here a minute!" Tony used his one good hand to push other's hands away until they stopped and he rubbed his eyes again, trying to get the images to stop. 

"This is a trick. You're not real. It's a trick. The Reality stone. Make it stop--" Tony muttered over the memories streaming through his mind, beyond his control. "It's not real."

"Tones, it's Rhodey. Can you hear me? Listen buddy, it's okay. I'm right here. It's going to be _my_ hand on your shoulder. I'm going to help you up and get you back to bed, Tones. You got a little cut on the glass from the mirror." Tony felt the strong, warm grip of his old friend. Then it tightened, tightened; the terrible grip strength of a super soldier.

"You're not going alone!" 

"You gonna stop me?" he responded angrily.

"No one is going to stop you, Tony," Rhodey said soothingly. "You don't respect yourself so I know you don't respect me. I'm just your babysitter."

"Don't be..." His brain stopped working, the word escaping him. Time escaped him. Where, when was he? The jet with Rhodey, before Afghanistan. No. Morgan. Peter. "Don't be mad," he pleaded.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Despite his plea, Rhodey sounded angry.

"We have no way of knowing how the Infinity Stones affected him," Helen said tremulously. "F-FRIDAY, place restraints, authorization Medical override 48Alpha 483."

Tony tried again to rub his eyes but now two gauntlets encased his hands gently, without pain, then spread over his entire body. Whenever he tried to move, thrusters countered to movement, immobilizing him completely. A medical device, not an armor, the restraint was a thin, flexible suit intended only to incapacitate if someone became a danger to themselves or others. 

"There's so many applications for causing short-term paralysis," Obadiah said conversationally. Tony's heart sputtered in his chest.

"Give him a sedative!" Pepper cried, alarmed at the reading on the monitor. 

"No! No, don't--"

"Then you have to stop fighting your restraints, Tony. You're getting blood everywhere," a new voice said sternly. Tony froze. He blinked several times, trying to make the images in his mind stop.

"C-Cap?"

"I'm here."

"I'm here too, Tony." It was Nebula. He felt anchored by her steady gaze.

The strange vertigo stopped and the world righted itself. He was in the med bay, he was restrained on the ground. As soon as he stopped fighting, the restraints relaxed entirely but he knew if he tried to move again he'd only be allowed a few centimeters or inches. He held still. The restraints allowed for passive movement so Helen came over and helped him to stand and walked him back to the bed. He laid down without resistance, his mind spinning. He knew without the restraints, he wouldn't have been capable of making it to the bed; his burst of energy had been depleted. Though he wasn't as weak as before, it felt rather as if he'd completed a taxing workout, a terrible marathon where he'd been pushed passed all his endurance. 

"He's feverish."

"Tony, are... are you okay?" Pepper put her hand in his. He couldn't feel it, exactly, with the restraints. 

"P-Pep. Morgan. I'm sorry I scared him."

"He's fine," she said firmly. "He was done crying the instant I took him out. He's with Happy."

"I'm sorry. S-something's w-wrong." He couldn't seem to speak without difficulty. When he knew the correct words, they didn't want to come out; when he could speak, the words wouldn't come to his mind. 

"Whatever is wrong, we're here to help you." Steve was watching him, his blue eyes piercing and concerned. "We've gotten through worse than this," he added playfully, nudging Tony's foot. 

Helen came over and examined the small cut on his right bicep from the broken mirror as the restraint retracted to allow her access. It had already stopped bleeding. She cleaned it off and wrapped a bandage around it. "What's happening? Can you tell me your symptoms?"

He looked at her warily, watching her warm brown eyes turn coldly blue with mind control then back to brown. He resisted the urge to jerk away from her, knowing it was futile, knowing she wasn't the mind-controlled Helen of the past. Yet he couldn't help his fear. His breathing was fast. He couldn't seem to get air. 

A strong hand grasped his head and pushed his face under the ice-cold water again and he felt the absolute panic of drowning as his air swiftly was depleted by his thrashing movements. At the last possible moment, or just passed it, he felt his hair yanked on unforgivingly, pulling him out of the water and he gasped and choked and froze. 

He fought for control. Of his body, of his mind. He could hear people in the med bay clamoring, he could feel the hands of the Ten Rings punishers. He could see the darkness of the cave, he could see the bright illumination of the lights above the bed. 

"Get Stephan Strange here," Steve ordered barked out. "And Bruce Banner. Find out where Carol went, and Thor, they might know something. This is got to be our top priority."

"Tony, are you with me?" Rhodey murmured, leaning close. Tony tried to nod. 

"Yeah."

"You scared me, there, not gonna lie. Want to tell me what's going on?"

"I don't know. What's Steve doing here? I thought he'd... b-be..." His thoughts swam then cleared. "I thought he'd be with Barnes. N-Nat."

"He wanted to stay here with you a while. Compound's been home for a long time, not so sure these folks are ready to leave just because you saved the entire universe. _You_ did that."

"Peter."

"He's around, Tones. He's with his aunt."

"I lost the kid." The ghost of an old pain, the wound Nebula had healed and Thanos had given him low and on his left side, ached.

"He's not lost, Tony. He's probably texting Keener and plotting some catastrophe. He's good."

"No, I, I lost him, the dust--" He looked at them, confused.

"Tony, you defeated Thanos with me. Me and Captain America killed him. You wielded the gauntlet, remember?" Nebula clenched her fists; a sign, Tony knew, that she was anxious or afraid of something, though her impassive face revealed nothing. 

He nodded. "You did."

"Whatever is happening to you right now, stop trying to fight it. It's making you sick, you idiot."

"Thanks," he said drily, feeling a bit more like himself as an object of Nebula's affectionate scorn.

"What's happening? Tony? Tony! What's wrong?" It would seem that Steve's urgent message had garnered results. Natasha, Stephen Strange, Bruce, and Thor came rushing into the small room, anxious and questioning. Natasha leaned over and hugged him, having not had much of a chance before to embrace him. "Carol is on her way, but she was in LA but she should be back pretty quick," someone murmured to Pepper and Helen.

"Something's wrong with Tony," Helen said clearly, silencing the room. Tony gave her an irritated look, disliking her talking about him while he was right there. She raised her eyebrow. "Can you explain what's happening to you to the rest of us?"

"I--" 

They were at a table, silently eating shawarma. Natasha leaned away from him, the sweetly spicy perfume of Natalie Rushman lingering in the air. "I'd do whatever I wanted to. With whoever I wanted to do it with."

"Sir, shall I try Miss Potts?" Tony jerked, the sound of JARVIS' voice hurting him unexpectedly with the memory of its loss. He felt the weight of the missile on his back; it was significantly dragging on his power supply to fly such a heavy object so high, so far, after so much use of the repulsors. 

He was supposed to say, _might as well._ The words wouldn't come. This wasn't right, this was... this was before. This couldn't be real, it had already happened, it was in the _past._ They had screwed around plenty with time travel, but this was different, this wasn't the _same._ He was him but _then._

The arc reactor died in his chest. He felt the stabbing, excruciating pain as the shrapnel was released from the restraining hold of the electromagnet, his body sapped of strength in an instant as his heart began to fail and he was freefalling through darkness. He had just enough consciousness remaining to know that a fall from this height would kill him; he knew that, how did he know that? Because Rhodey--

Something wasn't right. He wasn't falling; his terrible descent wasn't halted by the rough ministrations of the Hulk, he felt much more like he was floating, and he didn't go unconscious though he was too weak to move or open his eyes. "I've got him," Thor said over the comms.

"Is he breathing?" 

"Thor can you help--?" 

The facemask was ripped off his face and even with his eyes closed he could see the bright flash of light, thunder that Thor called down to repower the arc reactor. The tight, vice-like grip of the shrapnel pressing into his heart tissue lessened and strength and warmth and energy surged through his body. He opened his eyes. 

"Come on, Tony. Let's get you home." A tenor that he knows all too well, couldn't get out of his head for years _Tony. There was no other way._ It was Dr. Strange, reaching out a scarred and shaking hand to pull Tony to his feet. He wasn't in the armor, he was in the black undersuit. Steve, Thor, and Hulk were gone, and as soon as Tony grasped Strange's hand, he was back in the med bay.

"Thank you Wanda," Strange said very calmly in the now silent room, though the young woman was not in the room. Tony sat up, his head swimming. 

"Tell us what's going on, doctor," Steve said tensely, pale and still battered appearing from their last battle. 

"I'm not exactly sure," Strange answered, but was looking to Bruce and Carol Danvers. They both looked grave.  
"You said there shouldn't be any problems," Carol said.

"I assure you that was my understanding."

"What the _hell_ are you guys talking about? I want answers!" Rhodey said angrily.

"I thought you checked," Bruce said anxiously.

"I did. The effect of the infinity stones was an unknown factor though. There was no accounting for it."

"Stephen..." Tony said tiredly. Dr. Strange looked away, then his piercing blue eyes met Tony's soft brown ones. "Stephen, tell me what's going on."

"I think I better tell you in private."

"What?"

"Trust me, please, Tony. I know you might not want to, but you can tell everyone whatever you want... _After_ we've had a minute."

"I'm not going anywhere," Pepper snapped angrily, her eyes blazing.

"Damn right!" Rhodey shot.

"I'm afraid," Dr. Strange said with calm authority. "I really must insist."

His tone and gaze left no room for argument, though everyone tried. Everyone filed out of the room except for Bruce, Carol, Thor, and Dr. Strange.

Bruce couldn't help but start to tear up, and Thor held his shoulder as if to comfort and strengthen him. "Tony, I'm... I'm so sorry for what we're about to tell you," Bruce said brokenly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to leave you in the dark about what's going on for one more chapter!! Still deciding the exact direction to take. can you guess?


End file.
